Chikanga Stars Group

Greetings from Zimbabwe! This is 47-year-old Letwin from Mutare. She is widowed with three children. She also cares for one other dependent.

Letwin runs a retail business selling clothes, and she is a member of the Chikanga Stars group. The business has been in operation for seven years. She says the main challenges faced are high import duties at border posts and stiff competition.

Letwin has requested a loan of $600 to buy clothes for resale in town. She says the extra income generated as a result of this loan will allow her to expand her business and improve her family's general welfare. In the future, Letwin plans to operate a boutique shop in town.

More About MicroKing
This loan is administered by MicroKing Finance, Kiva’s first partner in Zimbabwe.

MicroKing’s mandate is to provide financial services integrated with advisory services and targeted training to the under-banked but rapidly growing Zimbabwean micro-enterprise sector. The intent is to mobilize the underprivileged as active agents in fighting poverty as well as to accelerate the country’s journey back to economic prosperity where Zimbabwe was once known as the “bread basket of Africa.”

Zimbabwean micro-enterprises are generally run by women and comprise a multitude of business types. Constraints on local production and manufacturing capacity have led to cross-border trading being the most common type of business.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.